


Signs of Love

by moanerlisa



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Humor, Jealousy, M/M, friendship with a healthy dose of homoeroticism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-21
Packaged: 2017-12-23 21:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/931481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moanerlisa/pseuds/moanerlisa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yosuke is willfully ignoring the signs, subtle or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Straight Answer

Weirdly enough, the first time Yosuke asked is when he got the whole truth.

"So, uh," Yosuke moved the phone from one ear to the other before he lost his courage and spent the rest of the night mouth breathing into the phone, "Chie or Yukiko?"

"Yes?"

Souji had responded a beat too late. Yosuke knew he wasn't listening, but their conversation had stalled by this point and he was scrambling to keep Souji on the line. Being on the phone with another guy was sort of weird, so why not ease the tension by talking about something they both were interested in? It was the best (and only) plan he had and it was getting late so he couldn't back out for fear of ending the phone call.

"You know," Yosuke continued, "which girl is your type?" He couldn't help the way jaw tensed when thinking about Souji liking someone else, _some girl_ , when they were getting along just fine so far. Just the two of them.

"Oh, that." Souji said. He replied flatly, sounding as if this was a conversation he couldn't be bothered to have anymore. Yosuke rationalized that Souji probably had a lot of girls asking him this anyway. It's not that Souji was annoyed of Yosuke, it was just the question that annoyed him.

"Hard to say." On the other line Yosuke could feel Souji's patience wearing thin, any minute now he would politely ask to end the call so he could get some studying in before bed, chastise Yosuke for not being more diligent and-

Suddenly Souji sounded amused. "You tell me who you like first."

"What? No! I asked you first." Yosuke sat up and almost dropped the phone. Souji breathed a little loudly, like he was laughing maybe.

It was just like Souji to turn the question around on him. Getting Souji to talk about his life was hard enough, but even worse, he had the tendency to ask questions that let Yosuke know he was earnestly listening to what he was saying. It was a nice change from his friends in the city who Yosuke found only seemed to ask him about his day as an excuse to talk about themselves. Still, it was impossible to press Souji for answers when Yosuke felt like he could tell him anything at this point. They'd sit by the Samegawa flood pain and Yosuke would go into embarrassing detail over how disastrous his first and only break up had been, both of them laughing and wincing all the while, but Souji would never reveal much beyond a thoughtful " _Ah_." every once in a while.

"Come on partner, I asked you first." Yosuke whined a little to emphasize his displeasure but bit his tongue when he realized he might sound a bit too eager about finding out if Souji was interested in the girls. Really, he wasn't all that interested in the answer. He'd actually rather not know at all if the tightness in his chest meant anything besides heartburn, but partners should tell each other this stuff. " _I'd tell Souji_." Yosuke thinks.

"I'm still going to to tell you. Only you're going to tell me first. Fair is fair right?" Yosuke groans internally. Souji logic. It made no sense whatsoever but Souji had the tendency to let his leader tone of voice slip into casual conversation. Yosuke thought it was on purpose more often than it was an accident.

Yosuke runs his hand through his hair and groans out loud this time. "Fine. I'll tell you," he thinks he hears Souji sit up, "I, uh, it's weird being on the spot. No fair..."

"You asked me first." Souji says, making no effort to hide his smugness. "Yeah but- damn it! This should be you getting all flustered right now." Souji sniggers despite himself and Yosuke allows himself a moment to regain his courage and continues, "Chie, Chie... I dunno. Her leg has made more contact with my crotch than any other girl," he think he feels his dick and ego deflate at the thought, "but those memories aren't exactly good ones."

"Some people are into that."

"You're so weird. And I'm not that guy, and Chie wouldn't... I hope." Yosuke pauses for a laugh but only hears silence on the other line so he keeps talking, "It's gotta be Yukiko. Yeah. She's got that long black hair and there's this air about her," Yosuke thinks he hears Souji suck in a breath and feels a bit discouraged and mortified at feeling that way, like he cares what Souji thinks about Yukiko, "so yeah, uh. Yukiko. Definitely."

"Hmmm," Souji doesn't seem too surprised, "I figured it'd be her. You've asked her out twice already haven't you?"

"Jeez, you gotta bring that up now? Let a guy dream." Yosuke had hoped Souji would have forgotten that encounter. His first encounters with Souji had been him getting kicked square in the balls by Chie, getting turned down by the hottest girl in school, and him ass up in a trash can. It's a surprise they were friends at all by this point, but even those encounters had paled to their second visit to the TV world. They'd encountered Yosuke's shadow then, and still Souji never bat an eye at the horrible things his shadow said- truth or no. He'd known Souji would be too polite to outright tell him he was pathetic, desperate ( _annoying_ ) to his face, so it was a continuous surprise that Souji didn't protest becoming friends- _partners_ , after the fact.

By now Yosuke had felt incredibly awkward having told Souji which girl he was into and he was getting restless thinking about who Souji would say he liked. He'd waited for Souji to speak up for what felt like five minutes already. He was either being an ass or he forgot, and damn it all, Souji had to embarrass himself too. No way was Yosuke going to go to bed not knowing Souji's answer after the suffering he just went through.

A long pause was all Yosuke heard on the other line. "Hello? Dude, you gotta tell me your pick." He let the annoyance creep in his voice because he was annoyed. His partner was a master at evasion, but that only made Yosuke all the more curious about how he felt about people- _things_.

So he asked again, "Chie or Yukiko?" and Yosuke stilled so he'd be able to hear Souji over the pulsing in his ears.

"Huh?" Had Souji seriously not been listening? He was probably laughing to himself at how easy it was to get Yosuke riled up. Or maybe he didn't want to tell Yosuke because Souji was a private person and Yosuke was a stupid loudmouth who might run his mouth and tell everyone, and wait, he hadn't told Souji not to let anyone know that he liked Yukiko damn-

"Neither, probably." Yosuke could practically hear the shrug in his voice.

Yosuke screamed, hung up, and plopped face first onto his pillow to scream some more.


	2. Getting Even

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do you tell when you're supposed to drop the subject? Probably after the first minute long stretch of awkward silence. Yosuke learns this the hard way.

"Souji." Yosuke spoke with his mouth full and some spittle ended up on Souji's arm, but he'd blame Souji for it since he was the one who insisted they sit so close.

But damn it, what was the point of having lunch together if Souji was just going to ignore Yosuke in favor of a tabby cat? He didn’t understand why Souji had to dole out lavish affection to a cat more than anyone else in Inaba. Besides Nanako of course.

Souji read the confusion on Yosuke's face and answered his question for him. "He's my friend so he followed me here. That's what friends do." Souji looked back to the cat who was leaving white fur all over his slacks and offered his hand to it, mirroring the cats look of content all the while.

Yosuke wasn't a fan of animals. He had nothing against them really but people were people and animals were... _animals_. He didn't understand why Souji kept a pocket full of smelly treats in case a stray went up to him (which they always did), or why he would hurry home when Nanako excitedly called him up in the middle of a study session at Yosuke's house so he would come home and pet the new cat circling the Dojima residence.

Basking in the attention the cat was receiving from Souji, it began tentatively crawling towards Souji's lap in order to be further ravished by his generous hand. Lunch would be over in twenty minutes and Yosuke couldn't take much more of this.

"Chie or Yukiko?" Yosuke's voice cracked towards the end when he realized how stupid it was to blurt out the girl's names without context and expect Souji to understand. His face reddened a bit as he replayed the moment in his head over and over and watched Souji hold his hand out for the cat to smell. Maybe Souji hadn't heard him, which was a relief, but he was determined to get a straight answer this time.

Souji took a moment to let the cat come to him on it's own terms and sat back a little, brushed his shoulder against Yosuke's for a second. He closed his eyes as if in thought and made a noise like he was mildly put out, like a parent who is tired of a child's incessant whining. In response Yosuke recoiled, feeling immature for bringing up something as petty as girls again just because some cat was hogging Souji.

"This again?" Souji phrased it like a question, no hints of passive aggression on his voice and Yosuke relaxed at that, let his voice adjust to its normal register.

"You never told me which one you liked." Yosuke was positive he sounded as unsure of himself as he felt but conceded that the first time he'd asked hadn't counted because really, was "neither" even an answer? The question was phrased so Souji absolutely had to choose one girl over the other, and he didn't.

" _Fair is fair_ ," Yosuke elbowed Souji in the ribs to make sure he was still paying attention, "and you gotta pick a girl partner."

The cat had finally relaxed enough to put it's front paws on Souji's thigh and look up at him, eyes wide and whiskers twitching. Souji maintained his composure and didn't move so as to not startle the cat. It had taken months to reach this level of comfort with it so Yosuke didn't bother them, but Souji seemed to be tensing up and the cat moved away again until it settled with planting itself at Souji's feet.

Frowning, Souji finally spoke up. "I already told you though." Souji rubbed his neck a little and unbuttoned his collar awkwardly, like he was looking for something to do with his hands. "I don't think of Chie or Yukiko that way."

"C'mon. Dude, c'mon. I mean, _come on_." Yosuke couldn't hide the nervous laughter bubbling up in his throat. Souji had a strange sense of humor, could say the weirdest things with a straight face but he was a _guy_. Guys thought that way about girls whether they liked them or not.

Yosuke sympathized and tried to get Souji to feel less uncomfortable. "It's not- I know it's weird but sometimes you catch a peek," Yosuke made a vague motion with his hand that didn't mean anything specific, "and it's all downhill from there." Yosuke could sense the lingering tension and tried to diffuse it with a joke and winked a bit too forcefully during his delivery, "Or uphill I guess. Heh."

Souji was staring down hard at his lap now, refusing to meet Yosuke's eyes. Was Souji embarrassed? _His Souji_? Yosuke's heart raced when doubts began to plague his mind. If Souji didn't trust him with something as simple as his taste in girls, then how could they stand on equal ground? It was such a small thing, knowing who Souji liked, but to Yosuke it felt like a test, and if Souji was unresponsive, did that mean Yosuke wasn't up to Souji's standards? What if their partnership was all one sided, forced upon Souji because he was too kind to tell Yosuke to back off?

Yosuke breathed and sat back to look up at the sky, but before long his eyes drifted towards Souji, still unmoving, eyebrows knit in frustration and fidgeting with a loose thread on his shirt.

Soon Yosuke noticed the cat had made off somewhere else. " _Probably for the best."_ he thought, feeling a bit jealous that this animal had managed to enthrall Souji like nothing else in Inaba and still left him once it got bored. Stupid... wait, was he feeling actual envy towards a cat? Yosuke laughed a little under his breath at the idea, but the way Souji's thigh jerked away from Yosuke's made him feel like an ass for making Souji feel this way. It was just a stupid question about girls. Not like he cared that much.

"Well, whatever," Yosuke said simply, "there's other girls huh? Don't worry about it." Yosuke slapped his hand on Souji's knee in an attempt to be casual but he ended up hitting his wrist on Souji's kneecap instead. Souji smiled a bit at Yosuke's touch, or maybe he was just relieved to have the subject finally dropped.

Souji decided to speak up. "You're right, it was tough being put on the spot like that," his eyes shifted a bit, and he blinked a few times like he was coming back to himself. Yosuke felt even guiltier then. Souji was kind enough to let things slide and would never hold it against Yosuke for being insensitive, but the fact that he was quietly suffering for the sake of politeness made Yosuke's mouth dry. He'd have to let Souji off the hook for good this time.

 "But it was still funny that first time when it was you getting flustered." The corner of Souji's lips were threatening to curl up, betraying the blank look on his face. Yosuke threw his head into his lap and covered his head with his arms. Beside him he heard Souji chuckle, not bothering to hide his delight anymore.

"Dude, you're...!" Yosuke raised his head and couldn't help laughing himself when he saw Souji's shoulders shaking. Yosuke remembered how shitty he had felt with Souji next to him, only not really. Souji seemed like he was somewhere else then. He thought about a kind Souji thinking of a kind way to tell Yosuke " _Kindly fuck off already_." Yosuke visibly grimaced.

"Augh, did you plan all that? Were you messing with me? Because I thought you were seriously freaking out and I was gonna," Yosuke put aside the warmth thoughts of holding an embarrassed Souji in his arms gave him and continued, "I dunno, pat you on the back or something... I didn't know what to think when you weren't saying anything or looking at me."

Souji shook his head, not really giving Yosuke an answer this time either. Souji paused briefly and opened his mouth as if to say something. His eyes narrowed and he began nervously fidgeting with his collar again.

"Yosuke."

It was all Souji managed to get out before he snapped his mouth shut again, like he needed some time to compose himself before speaking again. Yosuke eyed Souji hopefully, not quite sure what he was going to hear but excited to hear it anyway. But after closing his mouth Souji eyed his wrist watch and motioned towards the stairs. Whatever he had to say, it would have to wait.

Any minute now the bell was going to ring and they'd have to get back to class, listen to King Moron drone on about how everything their class had ever done ever was wrong and would continue to be wrong for the rest of their lives.

As if he read Yosuke's mind, Souji stood up and tugged Yosuke's shoulder. "Time to hear King Moron's inspirational lecture."

"Oh boy." Yosuke could barely muster the energy to get to his feet. " _Because he owes me for just now_." was Yosuke's reasoning for allowing Souji to pull him up by the hand instead of the shoulders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the hits and kudos. Shout out to my two favorite fictional gay boys, Souji and Yosuke, for making this happen.


End file.
